The Night the Devil Walks
is the ninth episode of the 1968 Cyborg 009 anime series. Like the previous episode, The Girl with the Golden Eyes, this story is adapted and retooled from an Ishinomori manga story that is completely unrelated to Cyborg 009; namely the manga. Plot Summary A mysterious beast has been wandering the streets of Tokyo and attacking pedestrians and police. An investigation by the 00 Cyborgs uncovers a scientist trying to perfect a defective strength enhancing formula he tested on himself that turns him into a violent and primitive sub-human creature. While he apologizes for what he has done, he accidentally dropped a vial of his serum in an airline pilot's car and the pilot mistakes it for a vitamin energy drink. Can the 00 Cyborgs get to the Pilot before he drinks it and endangers the passengers on the plane? Episode Recap On a quiet night in Tokyo, two police officers are walking on patrol when suddenly, they hear a loud crash and run into a tunnel to find a little girl crying for her mother. They investigate and find the girl's mother had driven into a narrow alley and is standing on top of her car laughing like a mad woman. Upon closer inspection of the car, the officers see that the front of the vehicle has been wrecked, almost as if it had been torn open. They wonder why the woman would drive on such a narrow road and then go to look after the upset child and the mother who is still laughing in a fit of madness, walking past the little girl's damaged doll. At an office building, a security guard is awoken by a strange and loud sound and then hears what sounds like someone breaking in. The guard gets his flashlight and goes to investigate, walking around the offices to search. He then sees a shadow in the distance and shines his light on it, only to be terrified by what he sees and runs away. The guard then ends up tumbling down the steps to the ground floor and then sees that the metal door that keeps the office building sealed during closing hours has been torn open. Upon seeing this, the guard faints in shock and goes unconscious. Outside the office building in an alley, a homeless man wakes up briefly when he feels the ground begin to shake and an alley cat sees something and flees in terror. The homeless man then tries to nap again, but then sees something coming towards him that frightens him. The homeless man then tries to defend himself using rocks he picks up and throws, but whatever is coming towards him is unharmed by his efforts to fend him off. The homeless man is then backed into a wall as a large shadow approaches and the man is choked to death, the evil figure then walking off, leaving a barrel which was crushed by its enormous feet off screen. A tanker truck driver is happily going along his route listening to music on his portable radio when all of a sudden during a right turn, he panics to try and steer away from something in the middle of the road and his tanker is hit by something which sets it ablaze, killing the driver in the mangled wreckage. Cyborg 009 is driving his car around the city and stops to investigate the blazing wreck. He sees that the drivers seat has a hole made by fang marks, almost as if something chewed right through it. At Gilmore Laboratories, Joe describes the events to Dr. Gilmore and believes that some kind of beast did this as it seemed like the hunting acts of some great predator. Gilmore notes this is the fourth incident in a single night and it is strange that that there were no witnesses to the disturbances. 001 thinks that once the beast had its fill of violence, it would be satisfied and move on before it was noticed. 001 cites that such aggression is used by certain animals as a means of marking their territory, putting the sites of the attacks on a computer screen which form a definite pattern. Dr. Gilmore suspects that whatever is behind this is in the center of that circle. 009 volunteers to go and track the beast later that night and will scour the entire area to try to capture it. A young woman walks into the room and jokes that the beast would flee in terror at the mere sight of 009 and she would be more suitable bait. Joe wonders who she is and it is revealed that the girl is 007 after "she" trips over, embarrassing himself. At a shipping dock, 007 maintains his "cute girl" disguise and waits for the beast to appear. 009 and 006 watch from a distance to keep an eye on 007 and the beast. 007 gets a bit nervous and has brief moments where he scares himself, such as kicking a can and spooking a nearby alley cat. After walking along the pier, 007 spots a shadow of a fanged creature and gets frightened, drawing his gun. 009 tells 006 to stay put as it isn't what 007 thinks it is. 007 goes around the corner to find the shadow belonged to an excavator sitting near a warehouse. Relieved, 007 goes back to his post, unaware that the beast is hiding behind the warehouse and watching him. A truck passes by 007 and one of the drivers gives a wolf whistle at the "cute girl" as they pass. 007 is annoyed by this and stretches his neck to spook them. The truck crashes and at first 007 thinks he overdid it and goes to check on the truckers, only to see something coming at him and the truck wrecked. 006 tries to help but gets knocked back. 009 goes in from the rooftops and sees a hulking hairy humanoid beast holding the trucks exhaust pipe and coming for terrified 007. The beast swings the pipe at 007's head and eventually too scared to maintain his shape, 007 reverts back to normal and tries to dodge the beast's attacks, then uses his Super Gun on the beast which has no effect. The beast then picks up a lamppost and throws it at 007. 007 pleads for 009's help and 009 comes and dive kicks the monster, only to later almost get knocked over by the arm of the excavator which is pushed by the beast. 009 then leaps over a set of barrels that the beast toppled over. The beast then flees and the three cyborgs pursue to a house outside the city, seeing the monster go inside. Inside the house in a laboratory is a scientist who is crying and pounding his desk over "another failure" as his serum didn't have enough energy to "revitalize him". He hears the doorbell ring and tries to hide his experiments knowing that the Cyborgs are there. He then pours his serums into old empty vitamin drink bottles to avoid any suspicion and goes to let the cyborgs in. When no one seems to respond, 007 tries to break down the door, only to run right past it when the scientist opens the door and into a wall. The Scientist inquires why they are here and 009 explains they want to investigate if the monster they have been following is somewhere in his house. The Scientist fakes ignorance of this and shows them around his home, but gives telling evidence in his behavior to 009 that he is hiding something. 009 finally confirms his suspicions when he sees a hair on the coat of the scientist and demands an explanation. The scientist offers to explain, but then vanishes behind a holographic wall to secret corridor which leads to his car. 009 and the others try to follow, but the scientist escapes in his car. 009 chases after him at super speed and the resulting car chase causes the scientist to crash his car and continue running on foot. 009 leaps and tackles the scientist, knocking him into someone else's vehicle and one of the bottles of serum falls out of the scientist's pocket and onto the front seat of the car. The scientist tries to grab it but gets pulled away, he then punches 009 off him and flees into a junkyard. Cornered, the scientist decides that 009 is too close to the truth and he must kill him and hide the evidence. 009 asks where the beast is, with the scientist saying he IS the beast, drinking what he confesses is his "incomplete" serum and transforming into a hideous monster. The transformed scientist throws a car at 009 and the two fight, 009 trying to use tires to bind the beast but he easily tears through them and begins to choke 009. The drug weakens a bit as the beast loses his grip and 009 uses this opportunity to judo throw the monster and take away the last bottle of serum he was holding. The beast passes out and Joe witnesses it revert back into the scientist. At Gilmore Labs, the scientist named Dr. Shini explains what he was trying to do in his experiments to Dr. Gilmore, a serum that would revitalize the energy of humans and bring forth their maximum amount of strength. He tested the drink on himself, but its power triggered an evolutionary regression that transformed him into a primitive beast. Flashbacks from the transformed Shini's point of view reveal how those incidents occurred: He smashed the woman's car with his bare hands and tore up the little girl's doll with the mere sight of him causing the woman to lose her sanity. He walked onto the road which caused the truck to crash and he broke into the office building and then killed the homeless man by strangling him. Realizing what he has done, Dr. Shini is remorseful and ashamed for his actions. Dr. Gilmore tries to be optimistic and tells Shini that at least he was the only person who took the serum. The scientist realizes in horror that he left one of the serum bottles in a car during his fight with 009. The owner of the car gets ready for work and thinks that the bottle is his missing energy drink from his lunch, he says goodbye to his wife and heads to his job at Tokyo International Airport. Joe drives to the place where the scientist dropped the bottle and they ask the pilot's wife about where the car is. She tells 009 that her husband went to work and his car is at the airport. 009 runs off in a panic after realizing what this means without explaining and drives off. 007 does a Buddhist chanting prayer as they are driving that they make it in time and the pilot didn't drink the serum. As they reach the airport, a jet plane takes off, meaning they are too late. As the plane takes off, the pilot feels warm and parched and drinks the serum. The Control Tower detects that Flight 28 is acting oddly on radar, as it is decreasing speed. The 00 Cyborgs, Dr. Gilmore and Dr. Shini look on helplessly as 28's projected path will cause it to crash into a plane that is about to land. The tower cannot get anyone in the cockpit as they are dealing with the pilot who is now transformed into a monster and being knocked unconscious. The monster pilot then wrecks the controls, chews the wiring, and stomps the headset to pieces while roaring wildly. 009 and 007 are in a jet to intercept the plane, as they only have 5 minutes before the plane collides with another flight. They then notice the plane is moving oddly, meaning there is no one at the controls. On the plane, the passengers begin to panic as the plane rocks back and forth and the stewardess fails to reach the cockpit as she is knocked over by turbulence. The monster continues his rampage in the cockpit, smashing the radio equipment and punching a window which destabilizes the cabin pressure. 009 ejects from his jet and then lands on the wing of the plane. He then makes his way to the cockpit and enters through the hole in the window. 009 fights with the monster and eventually subdues it, despite almost hitting JSDF planes in a military airfield during a training exercise. The monster reverts back into the pilot and 009 then stabilizes the plane and sends it back to Tokyo International. While the Control Tower is relieved, their celebration is short lived after 009 informs them that the controls have been damaged and he must go in for a manual landing. The Staff alerts the air traffic controllers that they must guide the plane to the runway. Gilmore wants 009 to come back safe, but 009 isn't thinking about that at the moment as he has 300 passenger he has to save. Dr. Shini apologizes as this is the results of his actions that caused the plane to go out of control. He swipes the last bottle of serum from Dr. Gilmore and runs. 009 deactivates the engines of the plane and tries to glide in for a soft landing, while rescue crews standby in case anything might go wrong. The plane flies too low and is in danger of crashing into the ocean and one section of the tail breaks off after hitting a sailboat mast, causing the plane to veer to the right and then lands and skids on the ground. At first things seem fine but the plane won't stoop and crashes into a pile of cargo containers and is headed straight for a gas tank facility. 009 feels something slowing the plane down and it is Dr. Shini transformed into the beast again, using his brute strength to try and stop the plane by pushing against it. He manages to stop the plane from hitting the gas tanks by several feet and then passes out from his injuries and reverts to normal. Dr. Gilmore rushes over to Dr. Shini and asks if saving the plane was the reason he stole the serum. Shini says he is human again and he is fortunate that he is going to die as a man rather than a monster. He never wanted to drink the serum and apologizes to Dr. Gilmore for using it again. Gilmore says he has nothing to apologize for as 300 people are alive thanks to his heroic act. Dr. Shini is happy his serum "worked for once" and he thanks 009 for giving him the courage of what he needed to do, shaking the young boy's hand before passing on. 009 cries and thinks Dr. Shini was a wonderful scientist after all, as though his invention didn't work the way he wanted it to, he tried to use it for good in the end. The passengers are evacuated from the plane as the episode ends. Notes *Elements of this episode's premise are similar to the classic literary work The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. *Some of the scenes on the plane recycles stock animation from the fourth episode, specifically the flight attendant running to the cockpit of the plane and the complaining passengers being reassured by the other flight attendant. *The Pilot of the plane who drank the serum resembles an Ishinomori-style caricature of the British sci-fi hero Captain Scarlet. Category:Cyborg 009 (1968) Category:Cyborg 009 (1968) Episodes